Passive House Conference 2022
As I'm writing this, I'm on the train on my way back from the Passive House Conference in Boston, thus still feeling excited and energized from being among a community of highly motivated and accomplished professionals who practice and advocate for the same causes I do. I was honored to be invited and participate at a policy round table yesterday and attended all of the live sessions today.
Although the first online conference day a week ago had more technical modules, the panels this week focused mostly on policy and equity. Electrification and Embodied Carbon were also large parts of the discussion.
We need policy to advance building quality. We have historically seen that when new policy is introduced, the market initially complains, but then eventually adapts, and at that point it becomes common practice. So, we can incrementally push towards a Passivehouse code mandate, as municipalities mainly in Europe have already done so. Incentives are also a big part of this, as a developer mentioned today that they prefer the carrot, not the stick. We are already rating our home appliances and incentives are being given for photovoltaics and energy upgrades to equipment and the same should happen with envelope improvements.
I heard a speaker define inclusion as being invited to the party and equity as being asked to dance, and the slogan of the conference was Passivehouse for all. Not only must people of all socioeconomic and racial backgrounds have the same access to quality buildings, but we also need everyone to be included in conversations about the development and production of such high quality projects.
In regards to electrification, many municipalities are already pushing towards that direction in tandem with building efficiency. The important aspect there is that building owners need to assess their buildings envelope and perform upgrades before electrifying the heating system to properly size equipment, thus reducing the heating or cooling demand. Cooking can instantly be converted to electric induction with the necessary load upgrades. And of course we should never forget about the ventilation requirement.
Finally, embodied carbon, although not such a new concept, it is something that is still vague and unfamiliar to the vast majority of projects and practitioners. There are tools out there to assist us in the evaluation of our buildings and the thoughtful selection of materials, but we still have a long way to go before these tools can become easy enough for practitioners to utilize in meaningful and scalable ways.
As I see the sun setting from the train window, I'm feeling excited about the year to come. I anticipate more action in advocacy, education and implementation of the Passivehouse standard on my end. And I look forward to returning to the conference next year, when it will be held in Denver.
